The Story and Aftermath of the Lost iPhone

By now you’ve read or heard about a missing iPhone that was lost and/or stolen from a Redwood City bar. Both Engadget and Gizmodo have posted images of the purported next generation iPhone (4/4G/HD) with the latter having purchased said device for $5,000. We know this to be fact because Gawker honcho Nick Denton believes in “checkbook journalism” and will do anything to give his readers what they want.

While the rest of us gawked and prodded for more details than what Gizmodo was willing to share, Gray Powell probably feared for his life. The 27-year-old Apple software engineer had one too many beers at the Gourmet Haus Staudt in Redwood City on March 18 (his birthday) and inadvertently left what many believe to be this year’s unannounced 4th generation iPhone. There isn’t much more than that to Gizmodo’s story but if you have time to waste then go right ahead.

Those of us in the small inner sanctum of the tech community expected a cease and desist to be dealt within minutes of Gizmodo’s big reveal yesterday but it never came. A C&D given to any gadget blog is a sure sign that whatever images or video they’ve published are things the company doesn’t want everyone else to see. Apple is playing coy in this situation and not admitting that the lost iPhone is anything but a misplaced device.

A letter from Apple’s general counsel to Gizmodo not once states that an iPhone was in the hands of the gadget blog. Apple simply requested Gizmodo return the “device” to its rightful owner.

If you ask me, we still don’t know anything about the unannounced next gen iPhone. Sure, the iPhone prototype has a forward facing camera, bigger battery, dramatically different design aesthetic and the like, but all of those things can and probably will change before Steve Jobs gets on stage at WWDC to show us what we’ve all been waiting a year to see. Or not.